Building Bridges.....

The Swedish prime minister Stefan Löven said the other day that he is proud and happy about the work that churches all over Sweden are doing to help homeless people and all refugees coming to Sweden. To help them with shelter, food, cloths etc. I am also happy to see people in need getting help, but what I do know about this government is that as long as the church is doing humanitarian job it's ok but when we proclaim Jesus, when we promote life instead of promoting abortion, when we stick to what we know the Bible is telling us about marriage, the prime minister and his government are not for us, they are against us. We should help people in need, we have to show compassion, but we can't turn our churches in to just humanitarian institutions, we have to tell all people the truth. Jesus is the great "I AM"!

Every night of the year, a long, muffled signal sounds over central Ystad Sweden. With a single note every fifteen minutes, blown to each of the four cardinal points, the Watchman in St:a Maria church declares ‘All’s well’, a living tradition that dates back many hundreds of years. It is a great tradition but I really hope Swedes would understand the real meaning with a watchman and the question: is it all well? I Hope that the watchman attitude would not only be in a church in the very south parts of Sweden and as an old tradition, I really hope we could have "real watchmen", warning us for whats to come...

The other day I was driving in a very busy area of the city centre. With parked cars along each side of the narrow road, I was trying to find a spot and people running across the streets making the situation even more stressful. The car in front of me was driving very slowly and I saw she too was searching for a place to park. When she saw a place she stopped. I was pretty close but managed turn the car to drive past her. She then started to reverse without looking around. I had to honk or she would have bumped in to my car, and when I did she started to wave her hands, yelling and pointing and gesturing with her hand at her head as if I was the most stupid driver in the world. Driving past I asked her why on earth she was so angry! She then continued to reverse her car and was very close to hit me in the side. I yelled at her to calm down, but she did not listen and shouted that she would by purpose hit me swearing at me all the time. When I finally parked my car a bit further ...

Very often through history we have seen groups "kidnapping" signs, logos and ideas and in a way make them their own. A good example of this is the Swastika, that the Nazis took and used as their own. The Swastika is a very old religious sign that we still today can see at many Buddhist temples all over Asia, both clockwise and anticlockwise crosses. Another symbol is the upside down christian cross, used by the Satanists as a symbol of their hatred for God, a God they don't believe in ( strange in a way). The origin of this symbol was a Christian symbol and represented the Apostle Peter. The tradition has it that Peter was crucified upside down since he didn't feel worthy of being crucified the same way as Jesus had been. Another symbol that we see so much these days is the rainbow, nowadays used by the Homosexual community. The sign of the rainbow (rainbows are a natural phenomenon) was a sign God gave to mankind that He would never again destroy all flesh ...

Almost 60 years ago, Lewi Pethrus got a question "What does prevent a revival from happening in Sweden" This was his answer: "It is the regrettable apathy that characterizes many Christians. The believers need to wake up. It is the Christians themselves that prevent revival! When we boldly come out of our comfortable sofas to set about soul-winning work for individual and public level with our message turning to the masses, something will happen. We will meet the spiritual yearning that has been built up among the worldly people - then revival becomes a fact. But we retreat, we continue to sleep. If we continue doing this we can no longer bear the Christian name. " wow is it still relevant today? I think so...

Even though Jesus was in great physical pain on the cross, His hands and feet pierced with big nails, His back torn apart from whipping and a crown of thorns pressed on his forehead, No words of judgement came over His lips. He did not cursed the ones who did this to him or to the people doubting or mocking him. What he did say was: Please forgive them because they don't know what they are doing. Jesus died the same way he was living and teaching. Speaking words of affirmation and words of encouragement. To the thief beside him on the cross he said: Tomorrow you will be with me in paradise. How about you and me? When we are in trouble when we get hurt, when we are disgraced, do we judge or do we forgive?

A rather well known Swedish actor said on national TV some days ago that during his many trips to Thailand he spend some time with a Buddhist Monk who said to him that " it is better to give than to receive". This actor thought it was so very nice to hear that and he never heard that before. Well he should have read the Bible! "In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” (Acts 20:35)